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Both teams entered the week in the Top 25 in Prep Baseball Report's latest power rankings, with Lex at No. 15 and Bellevue at No. 4. But even as the underdogs, the Minutemen struck early with a pair of runs in the top of the third inning; Hunter Biddle drove in Josh Aiello on a squeeze play and Jared Stricker brought in Jacob Odson with a shot up the middle.

Bellevue retaliated in the next inning by scoring off a wild pitch and an RBI-single from Justin Drennen to tie it at two runs apiece.

The tie lasted until the top of the sixth, when Ben Vore doubled deep to left field for an RBI and scored off a hit from Ian Moore minutes later. That RBI and run turned out to be icing on the cake for Vore as the sophomore earned his first pitching win in his first start of the season. He threw 98 pitches across six innings, finishing with seven strikeouts and two walks.

Vore even managed to avoid potential disaster later in the sixth inning. After giving up two singles with two outs in the bottom of the sixth, Vore found himself with the bases loaded and the leading run on first. But he escaped by causing Bryce McMurray to swing on a low pitch for a dropped-third strike, then Odson tagged home plate for the force-out.

Strickler came on the mound in the seventh and closed out the game with a pair of strikeouts.

"We finally got a game that didn't get rained out to let Ben Vore get his start," Lexington coach Kevin Morrow said. "He did an excellent job. He had one little hiccup inning where they scraped across some runs, but other than that he did an outstanding job."

Thanks to his solid pitching during travel baseball last summer, Morrow said, Vore has already caught the attention of Division I college baseball scouts.

"Right now he's got Ohio State interested in him," Morrow said. "He had a great summer, some guys saw him pitch. He's definitely being looked at as a possible D-I prospect down the road."

Both Morrow and Strickler agreed Saturday's win made a big statement to the other teams in Division II.

"We've beaten them three out of the last four times we've played, so that's always nice," Strickler said. "For the district it's always great to beat them. They're always up in the top, so if you can beat them it sends a message to everybody."

"It's always huge," Morrow said. "Bellevue every year is a quality program, well-coached. And they're always going to be seeded high in the district, and I think they're even ranked in the state. So to come up here on their field is a big boost for us."

Unfortunately for Lex, they weren't able to escape the road trip completely unscathed as they lost their second game of the day to Clyde 2-1. The Minutemen (8-3) return to conference action next week with games against Ashland on Tuesday and Wednesday.